Aldnoah Zero: Regret
by Bashabuttonstories
Summary: Slaine's thoughts during and after the final moments of Aldnoah.Zero. Enjoy!


**A/N: . Jeez guys. What an ending. Anyway! This is my interpretation of Slaine's thoughts during and after the final scene. 1st person, Slaine's perspective.**

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><p>~The Aldnoah drive room. Princess Asseylum has just deactivated the Aldnoah, before two Mechs burst into the room.<p>

'Princess!' I shouted in my mind. After all this time, all this bloodshed, I had found her. I didn't care that she was helping orange, I'm sure she had her reasons. Hey. We may not even have to be enemies. Just call out her name an-

A shot was fired. My ears rang as I ducked under cover, and then a second bullet. But when the bullet whizzed past my head, and I saw the count standing with his arm stretched out in front of him, aiming at the princess, I realised I wasn't the target. I instantly felt the cold embrace of death, and shivers of fear rushed through my body.

'Not the Princess... NO!'

I revealed myself, I stepped out of cover, and felt my eyes water as my chest tightened. A knot in my throat appeared, I coughed, trying to free my constricted lungs. The princess fell in slow motion, her head flung back from the bullet that impacted with her cranium, blood rushing from her shoulder too. Her body was limp, and I couldn't even call out her name.

I turned, and screamed in agony, but... The count. He was smiling! He grinned, but it wasn't long before my gun was in my hands. I screamed again, but in rage, as I fired bullet after bullet, my hands were shaking, less than half of my bullets hitting their mark.

"ARRRRAAGH!" I continued to scream, agony, pain, fear and rage fueling my actions. Dead man's click. The gun stopped firing, and a shell jammed in the chamber.

The count slid down, and with one last smile, and one last lesson for me. Tapped his head.

'Headshots kill.' I understood perfectly. I turned around, anger still coursing through my veins, as I slipped another magazine into my weapon. Orange.

I walked over to the mech, to find him crawling towards her highness, MY princess.

He crawled. To be honest, it was admirable, his determination. But at the time, I was ready to kill him there and then for even attempting to approach her. She was mine.

"Do not take another step. Do not attempt to touch her highness. Orange." I cocked the hammer on my handgun.

Orange slowly turned his head to look at me. "Bat." He said.

I displayed no reaction, and he smiled. It was a victorious smile, and in my anger, I may have interoperated it incorrectly, but even now, I can see no other reason for him to have smiled. It said 'I won. She fell for me.'

I gritted my teeth. I didn't want to kill Orange. Not really. He had demonstrated that he didn't want the princess dead, he had demonstrated that he was rational, and he had demonstrated that he was strong. Very strong.

And yet, what he did next... I don't know whether I reacted reflexively, or on instinct, or out of my naivety. The thought that the princess was mine and mine alone.

He turned to me, and pulled out his sidearm. 'I don't care if you kill me. She's dead. If I die, I can be with her.' Again, I could be wrong, but... I saw that look in his eyes. And pulled the trigger. My hands were shaking like crazy, as the bullet traveled out of the gun, and into the centre of his forehead, instantly killing him.

Too many people dead. Too much blood on my hands. No princess. The war would most likely continue. This little operation, had accomplished nothing. I emptied the chamber of my gun, holstered it... and left.

I could still hear the twisting as spasms of Count Saazbaum, the blood flowing out of the bullet wounds... And the soft leaking of royal blood. I turned to take one last look at the scene that would change me forever.

It would haunt my dreams, always in the back of my mind. Why did I shoot? Why did I save the count? Why didn't I save the princess? These questions... Ultimately. The deaths of Orange, Count Saazbaum and... The princess, are on my hands. I made my way toward the exit of the room.

I could hear fighting outside, infantry fighting, most likely an escort pair for the princess. I stepped toward the door as it slid open. A woman sat by the doorway, in cover, her hand pressed to her leg as blood flowed out of the wound. She was gritting her teeth, poking round the corner every so often to fire a few shots off. Even with the castle powered down, these Martians wanted to fight to the death. I had no love for them.

"Shit!" Yuki turned her gun and pointed at Slaine, only just noticing him.

"The princess is dead. So is orange... And the count." I said coldly.

Yuki widened her eyes in horror, her gun hand shook as the shivers took over. She sobbed.

"B-But... She did it... The power..."

"The count killed the princess."

"And Inaho?"

"..." I pulled out my gun and pointed at her, creating a standoff.

"You killed him... Why... Why!?" Why?... Why... I didn't know. I just wanted the princess to be mine...

"He reached for her highness in his dying breaths, and then... I shot him." I finished. My finger tightened on the trigger.

Yuki's eyes filled with rage, but as the tears began to well up in her eyes, she dropped her gun.

"Then none of it matters. Go on. Shoot me. Shoot all those Martians down there. This war isn't going to end now that she is dead." Yuki said, her emotionless expression deciding that her feet were more interesting than anything going on around her.

"Yuki!" Another girl shouted from across the corridor, I grabbed Yuki's gun, and pointed one at her, the other still aimed at Yuki.

"Inko... Stay back."

She shook her head, and charged forward, firing off shots to her left as bullets flew by her. She slid into cover next to Yuki, and pointed her gun at Slaine.

"It's ok Inko. He won't shoot... It doesn't matter if he does."

"What!? Of course it does! We have to wait for Inaho and the Princess!"

"They aren't coming."

"Wha-... No... No no no no!" Inko fell to her knees, her weapon trembling in her hand. I gripped my second gun tightly.

"Slaine shot Inaho. The count shot the Princess."

Inko looked up at Slaine, and aimed at him, her hand shaking. I remember thinking, does she want this? Do I have to kill them both?

"It's not worth it Inko." Yuki said in monotone.

Inko sobbed, and dropped her gun, allowing me to lower mine.

"If we work together we can all get out of this."

"And for what!?" Yuki screamed, I remember her words clearly. "The war isn't going to end! Bloodshed will continue! All is lost. You bloody Martians can have the damn planet."

I gripped her wrist tightly, and screamed at her. "I am not Versian! Do not compare me to them... I'm a Terran... What they did to the princess and this world is unforgivable."

She ripped her arm away from me, and went back to her grieving.

I gave up on the two, turning to the still firing Versians. I had no plan, I remember thinking - Now... How do I- - Just then, a mech stomped in through the wall, crushing most of the Versians. I finished off the stragglers with the pistols in my hands, and turned to the girls.

"If you want to live. We go now." I tossed Yuki's gun back to her, preferring the white finish of my Versian gun.

I remember seeing the mech and gasping in fear, the orange colour, the white line...

"The princess! Inaho!? Where are they!" Shouted from inside his mech, Inko helped Yuki limp up to him.

"How are you out here!?"

"I'm bleeding out... You were taking way to long and I got worried. I managed to get one of the spare trainers we kept. Now! We need to go! Where are they!?"

"T-They aren't coming..." Inko said.

"What!?"

"THEY'RE DEAD." I screamed, ushering the two on.

"I shot Inaho. And the count shot Her Highness Asseylum." most likely gritted his teeth as he lifted the Mech's foot, but I did not dodge.

"D-Damn... Go." He said, I nodded, and exited the castle. I remember breathing in the fresh, cold air, and thinking. Let it go. Let it all go. And yet, I regretted everything that happened in that chamber. I cocked my pistol, and ran to the hanger, sliding off the edge of the castle and into the bay doors. After acquiring a ship, I flew. I flew for hours and hours, wondering, confused on where to go. I had nowhere to go. I was welcome nowhere.

And all I can remember thinking is...

Justice is served. Though the heavens fall.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review!**


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